North American markets look poised to rise Wednesday, with upbeat data on U.S. personal income and spending setting the tone for the start of December trading.

Spending by U.S. consumers rose 0.7% in October, marginally outpacing a 0.6% gain in incomes that was the largest increase in five months. The savings rate shriveled to it lowest mark since 2001, the U.S. Commerce Department said today.

Later this morning, the Institute of Supply Management will release its survey on manufacturing activity for November. Economists’ estimates are for a reading of 56.8, unchanged from the previous month.

North of the border, prices for manufactured goods at the plant gate eased again in October while the price of raw materials used by factories continued to grow, Statistics Canada said today.

On a monthly basis, the prices charged by manufacturers fell by 0.5% for the second month in a row, StatsCan said. Four of the last five months have seen monthly declines in the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI).

The 12-month change in the IPPI was 5.4%, up from September’s increase of 4.7%, but unchanged from July and August and down from a high of 7.0% in June.

Prices for petroleum and coal products continued to have a major influence on the 12-month change, said the government agency said. Had they been excluded, the IPPI would have increased only 3.0% rather than 5.4%.

Meanwhile, raw materials cost factories substantially more, as manufacturers paid 28.0% more for their inputs than they did in October last year, StatsCan said.

In business news, Bombardier. is cutting 2,200 more jobs in its rail transportation division, bringing the total reductions to 7,600 by April 2006 – or 21% of the division’s workforce. The new cuts are spread across 14 countries and 27 locations, but affect mainly Germany, Britain and Canada, the company said today..

North American stock markets closed lower Tuesday. The S&P/TSX fell 26.36 points , or 0.29% to 9,030.05, on volume of 283 million shares.

The heavyweight financial services group closed down 0.28% on weakness in insurance and mutual fund companies, but Canada’s big banks all closed higher.

Royal Bank of rose 40¢, or 0.65%, to $62.40. The bank reported a 31% drop in fourth-quarter profit on as it booked charges for its struggling U.S. mortgage unit and for a business realignment that will cut 1,660 jobs.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slid 11.17 points, or 0.63%, to 1,754.39. Volume was 98 million shares.

On Wall Street, stocks also dropped, after a report that the holiday shopping season got off to a sluggish start.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 47.88 points, or 0.46%, to 10,428.02. The S&P 500 index dropped 4.75 points, or 0.40%, to 1,173.82. The Nasdaq composite index slid back 10.06 points, or 0.48%, to 2,096.81.

However, both the Dow and S&P 500 turned in their best monthly performance so far this year in November.

The Dow gained 4% and the S&P 500 added 3.9%. The Nasdaq rose 6.2%, its largest gain since October of 2003.